<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>I'll also vouch for KNJN's boards, the designer knows what they're doing and has been around for quite a few years. Same person that runs <a href="http://www.fpga4fun.com/">http://www.fpga4fun.com/</a> which is an excellent intro to a variety of simple FPGA projects. VGA stuff is fun, and to begin that path you can do some very slow R-2R triangle waveforms that show up nicely on an oscilloscope.</div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On Apr 2, 2013, at 4:41 PM, "M. Elizabeth Scott" <<a href="mailto:beth@scanlime.org">beth@scanlime.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">That board may be a good start, but to design useful things you'll need a clock source and probably a little I/O. If folks in the class are using breadboards, the clock could be a "metal can" oscillator module.<div>
<br></div><div style="">If possible, I'd recommend getting a slightly more featureful board though, especially for educational purposes. I like the <a href="http://KNJN.com">KNJN.com</a> boards. Their "Saxo" board includes USB 2.0 (via a microcontroller you can choose to program or not) and a clock source. It's a little more expensive at $60, but still in the same ballpark:</div>
<div style=""><br></div><div style=""><a href="http://www.knjn.com/ShopBoards_USB2.html">http://www.knjn.com/ShopBoards_USB2.html</a></div><div style=""><br></div><div style="">If you can find a cheap board with a VGA output (or build a cheap R-2R ladder on a breadboard), I've found that video is a really fun way to learn FPGA development. I'm a visual learner, and it helped a lot to be able to build video signals in real-time :)</div>
<div style=""><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div style="">-m</div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Robert "Finny" Merrill <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rfmerrill@berkeley.edu" target="_blank">rfmerrill@berkeley.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">This is what I have: <a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/251215580947?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649" target="_blank">http://www.ebay.com/itm/251215580947?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649</a><div>

<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">+1 <div><br></div><div>Shouldn't we standardize on a cheapish FPGA board though. I'll do some research to whats available for under $50<div>